Some practices treat relief coverage as an expensive last resort, and the numbers back that instinct up: relief veterinarians can cost 60% to 70% of what they generate in revenue, and one practice manager has seen fees spike to 10 times normal rates during a coverage crunch, according to hospital leaders interviewed by the American Animal Hospital Association. But a smaller group of practices experience relief differently: as a stable bench of professionals who show up prepared, know the hospital's workflow, and pick up the same shifts month after month. The difference between those two experiences comes down to how deliberately a practice builds the relationship, not luck.

The Real Cost of Treating Relief as One-Off Coverage

Leslie Boudreau, incoming president of the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association, has watched relief fees climb sharply at practices scrambling to fill gaps.

"I've seen practices pay 10 times the amount we paid just a few years ago. It's crazy. There is no way a practice can stay profitable on the days when they hire a relief veterinarian."
Leslie Boudreau

Elaine Myers, hospital administrator at Orange County Emergency Pet Clinics in California, described paying triple the usual overnight rate to keep her emergency room open over a single holiday weekend, on top of a real continuity of care cost: regular staff often have to untangle relief doctors' documentation or reconstruct a treatment plan that does not match how the practice normally works. Neither cost shows up as a line item, but both are real, and both get worse the less a relief professional actually knows a specific practice.

What Makes a Relief Professional Want to Come Back

Dr. Dana Tashjian worked as a relief veterinarian in Florida for 5 years, between two stretches as an associate, and experienced both the appeal and the friction of the arrangement firsthand.

"The down sides were dealing with paying taxes as an LLC or S Corp, not having medical insurance offered, and constantly feeling like I couldn't say no. I ended up working six days a week because I wanted to help out when I could."
Dr. Dana Tashjian

That last line matters for practices building a relief bench: a relief professional who feels genuinely wanted, not just filled a gap for, keeps saying yes. Dr. Cindy Trice, who spent years as a relief veterinarian before founding Relief Rover and later joining Hound, describes the best relief relationships as a two way trade: the practice gets a guilt-free way to let staff take real time off, and the relief professional gets flexibility, variety, and a chance to bring in fresh ideas from other hospitals they have worked in.

How to Build a Relief Bench That Keeps Coming Back

  1. Treat the first shift as a tryout, both ways. Book an initial half or full day before committing to a recurring arrangement, and use it to confirm the fit on caseload, pace, and communication style rather than assuming any licensed professional will slot in the same way.
  2. Standardize your onboarding packet. A one page reference covering your record system's shortcuts, where supplies live, and who to call for what turns a relief professional's first hour from confused improvising into productive work, which is exactly the continuity gap Myers and Boudreau are describing.
  3. Communicate scope and schedule early, then hold to it. Nothing erodes a relief relationship faster than a shift that runs long or a caseload that turns out heavier than described, since the relief professional is pricing their time based on what you told them upfront.
  4. Pay promptly and predictably. A relief professional juggling several practices remembers which ones pay on time without a follow up email, and that memory shapes who gets first call the next time they have an open week.
  5. Ask for feedback and actually use it. Lori Kogan, a psychologist and professor at Colorado State University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences who co-authored a 2023 Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association survey of 444 mobile and relief veterinarians, found that practices willing to adjust compensation structures and scheduling based on relief professionals' actual feedback have an edge in a market where relief work keeps growing. The American Veterinary Medical Association reported the number of relief veterinarians grew 30% between 2008 and 2018 alone, and that growth has not reversed.

None of this eliminates the real costs Boudreau and Myers described. A relief shift will likely always cost more per hour than a staff associate's. But a practice that treats its regular relief professionals as a genuine bench, worth investing a little onboarding time and consistency into, spends less of that premium on confusion and more of it on actual coverage, and keeps the same trusted names saying yes to the next open shift.